Customer Reviews

Teenage Wasteland: Suburbia's Dead End Kids

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

I recently reread this book and was pleased, yet unsurprised to, see how well it's held up. The books easily stands on it's own merits, however I have been compelled to write a review after reading some of the bilge that others have written. Mostly along the lines of "I knew these kids or I'm from Jersey and she shouldn't have written that book", and other unintelligent nonsense and blindfolded provincial tripe. Comparing Dr. Gaines to the Taliban is about as clever as someone comparing homosexuals with the devil. If someone is that stupid as to make that comparison, they're in over their empty head just reading the word sociology, much less a book on the subject.

I read this book not long after it's release. I considered myself a graduate of a similar 'teenage wasteland' on long island, and approached the subject matter with the critical eye of someone with years of experience of suburban malaise, suicidal cohorts and punk and metal soundtracks. After completing the book I was genuinely moved not only by her obvious empathetic treatment of the subject matter, but for her logical conclusions pertaining the conditions that made the events in the book not only understandable, but also unavoidable. She never judged the subjects of the book, and thus gained their confidence. Her personal connection to the events she was writing allowed her a keen insight into the situation she describes without sacrificing clinical, reasoned objectivity.

Not long after reading this book for the first time, I wrote to the author, thanking her for her efforts regarding a subject that I knew well. Instead of receiving a corporate form letter reply or a brush off, I received a personal response from the author and an invitation to discuss the book in person. The author, completely without pretension or hidden agendas, spent time with myself and my friends discussing the ubiquitous dementations, absurdities, and the poignancy of suburbia. She did so without asking anything of us, and we were not exploited or maltreated, nor were the subjects of this book.

The fact that she took the time to give equal time to suburban dirtbags for no other reason than we liked her book... and knew where she was from... speaks volumes of not only her character, but her integrity as well. I highly doubt that the same could be said of the books' critics.

I read this book for a class I was taking and I didn't expect much from it. But I was wrong. This is a very good book and the information is both surprising and relevant. I probably would not have read this book except for my class and I would have missed out on a lot.

As a baby-bust kid raised in Bergenfield, I found Ms. Gaines conclusions pretty much on the mark. However, her constant references to herself were not relevent to the topic. Growing up in the sixties in Long Island and having beach parties was nowhere near growing up in Bergenfield in the eighties even if you knew the names of heavy metal bands. Several points she failed to make well were: Reagan's trickle-down economics and not raising the minimum wage failed us completely. (I am still paying off college loans from 1988.) Also, she completely missed the connection that my generation's parents were fifties kids who idealized Ronald Reagan, bought the whole Father Knows Best thing and still truly believed in Camelot and the American Dream. How could we but disappoint? Many of our parents had cars when they were teens, got good jobs without college degrees, got married and had kids, and also bought a house all before they were 25. Hippies frightened the bejeesus out of them. And, they were in no mood to believe that hope was dead for those of stuck at $3.35 an hour. Ms. Gaines religifying music was a little much as well. Being a musician, I know that kids as well as adults need to have a good time, blow off steam, to escape. The energy of rock, heavy metal, thrash, etc. appeals to them often on a visceral, not always intellectual level. Kids out there often enjoy music when they don't even have clue what the lyrics are. Also, her slang to sound cool was a little much. On the topic of the kids feeling worthless, she was dead on. There was another name they were given, not even mentioned in the book which breaks my heart when I think of it. Dregs.

While to a seasoned scholar in the discipline of the sociology of youth this book may seem "simplistic," it drew me into the discipline. Not only did Donna Gaines become part of the suburban kids world, but she gave them a voice...The most fascinating aspect I found was the symoblism of rebellion and the profound meaning it carries. For this alone, this book is valuable.

Ms Gaines has characterized the culture of the generation that was supposed to inherit the American dream. The explosion of suburbia over the past 50 years has produced a generation struggling with the norms of it's own culture.

Ms. Gaines' "undercover" work in producing this book is superb. She socialized with a group of teenagers to learn about the culture that seems so odd to outsiders, and seems so destructive. She however does not have a "cold, scientific" style -- rather she becomes part of the group honestly. She does not pretend to be one of them. She treats the subject with respect, love, and an open mind.

The result is truly a rich picture of a culture most people never see or frequently don't understand.

I grew up in Bergenfield, knew the "burnouts" as she called them and was shocked at how Miss Gaines took the facts and twisted them for her own profit, she never spent more than 1 day in town, I never heard of her prior to this book, what about the real story? What about the happenings BEFORE this took place and WHY? Just another worthless adult making money exploiting the children that were unable at the time to speak for themselves.

Well done Miss Gaines, hope you sleep well at night........

I read this book when it first came out many years ago. I have always had a big interest in reading books about teenage culture and rock n' roll culture, and comparing and contrasting the situations in other eras and cities to what I remembered growing up in an economically depressed area. The details of teenage lives - what music the kids listen to (Metallica, who were at that point not yet a household word and much more of a cult band for dispossessed working-class youth), what goals in life they have, where they hang out all day - have always been fascinating to me. In that respect, this book does not disappoint. You will get a vivid picture of how a group of teenagers in Bergen in the 80s went about their daily business.

However, the book bothered me on a couple of other levels. First of all, the impetus of the book was a group of teen suicides. Gaines, the author, purports to be getting to the root of why the kids killed themselves, but she seems to miss the mark. For one thing, the kids she's talking to are still alive. For another thing, teen suicide tends to happen across all groups of teens and likely has its roots in a lot of factors other than the social environment or even the economic environment - for example, personal family dynamics and mental health issues (Prozac was also not a household word when this book was written). Gaines really doesn't get too deeply into those other causes and seems to be looking for ways to paint Bergenfield as "suburbia's dead end". This seems biased and incomplete, especially since she's coming at it as an outsider. Much is made of the fact that Gaines, unlike her teenage subjects, is educated, lived in NYC, and has spent time listening to and hanging around bands that a listener of that era (such as me) will recognize as being dear to the hearts of the college radio hipster set. Although Gaines seems to have tried very hard not to look down on her subjects, once you know all these personal details about her you do get a sense that she just landed from Mars and is maybe reading too much into the kids' every thought, activity and slice of pizza.

Gaines' omnipresence in the story, constantly sharing details about her own life and how she is trying to gain her subjects' trust and "fit in" and seemingly congratulating herself for being able to relate to these younger people, also gets very distracting and annoying. I would have preferred her to be more of an invisible author, but that also would have made the book thinner. At times I felt like she simply didn't have all that much to report back on and fell back on padding the story with her own experiences. This might have been OK if she was writing a memoir but she is seemingly trying to write an actual sociological study. She may be a very nice person but she came off at times like one of those thirtyish high school teachers trying to prove she's still "hip" and can "relate" to the "kids".

I think this book might have made for a nice feature in Rolling Stone or Spin on how the kids of Bergenfield spend their days and nights (with copious Metallica references thrown in). It does not work so well as a whole book. The kind of in-depth study Gaines was trying to do would have been better done by someone from the area, or perhaps by someone who would have talked to and researched a whole lot of factors besides just the lives of a group of high schoolers. As it is, I was left with a lot of unanswered questions about Bergenfield and way too much knowledge of Donna Gaines.

The book came in excellent shape, no tears or stains. It looked brand new.

I am a senior in college and have grown up in Bergenfield my whole life. I was around 10-11 when this book took place and do remember my parents talking about the events. Donna was correct in describing the atmosphere of the late eighties and it was filled with all these "white trashy" teens who drop out, have the long hair, and walk around town. Now you do not see that. You see teens who are more "put together." They wear designer clothes and seem to be more "socially acceptable." It's almost as if they are more knowing of their surroundings, which makes them smarter. Times have defiantely changed in the 10 years.

I was really disappointed with this book. I was hoping the author would spend more time talking about the individual characters, and draw some conclusions and ideas from this -- instead she was just constantly throwing out reasons for teenage angst based on her _personal_ experiences. It seemed like the intention of the book was to show how she would uncover something interesting by immersing herself with the kids... instead she spends most of the book talking about herself instead.